The yield on the Italian 10-year BTP fell to 4% in March, the lowest in six weeks, as investors digested the ECB’s 50bps interest rate hike and continued to monitor risks over a potential crisis for European banks. The ECB’s rate hike was in line with its previous pledge, lifting key borrowing costs to their highest since 2008 to extend the fight against soaring inflation in the Eurozone. Still, the move defied recent market expectations of a softer rate hike after Credit Suisse’s exposed vulnerability and bank failures in the United States unveiled systemic risks to the global financial system. In the meantime, the central bank refrained from hinting at another interest rate hike in its next meeting or announcing a faster pace for quantitative tightening after the second quarter, lifting demand for higher-yielding Italian BTPs. Consequently, the spread between the 10-year BTP and its German counterpart narrowed to 185bps after reaching a two-month high of 192bps on March 15th.
Historically, the Italy Government Bond 10Y reached an all time high of 14.20 in October of 1992. Italy Government Bond 10Y - data, forecasts, historical chart - was last updated on March of 2023.
The Italy Government Bond 10Y is expected to trade at 4.49 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate it to trade at 5.04 in 12 months time.